| | Conference challenges provide added exposure, but only if a league has the depth to handle the responsibility.
The Atlantic 10 and the Great Midwest/Conference USA held a challenge from 1994 to '98, but included just two teams from each conference.
The Big Ten and the ACC may be the only leagues that have the name recognition to pull off a league-wide challenge. The Big East couldn't do it with 13 schools (let alone find a conference to match its membership).
|  | | Steve Robinson knows not every conference is a good fit for a challenge series. |
"Our schools are so tied up with intersectional games that to commit to even more would be tough," Atlantic 10 assistant commissioner Ray Cella said. "Some would enjoy it and some wouldn't."
Television dictates conference challenges. Brigham Young and Utah are investigating a challenge with two schools from the ACC to be held at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City in 2000-01. But if it's not on television, don't expect the ACC to participate.
Conferences like the Mountain West, the WAC, Mid-American or the Missouri Valley Conference would jump at the chance for a conference challenge, even if only the top teams were invited.
"But it wouldn't have the same impact as the ACC/Big Ten Challenge," said Florida State coach Steve Robinson, who coached at Tulsa when it was in the Missouri Valley and the WAC. "The MVC versus the Big Ten or the WAC versus the Big Ten doesn't draw the same interest."
But a WAC versus the Missouri Valley, if someone would put it on television (ESPN or a Fox regional network, for example), would work for those conferences.
"Teams in the MAC can get those type of games on the road, but not at home," said N.C. State coach Herb Sendek, a former coach at the MAC's Miami of Ohio. "A challenge would have helped the MAC, especially at home."
But it won't happen unless the networks want to hand schools like Bradley, Gonzaga, Valparaiso or Southwest Missouri State made-for-TV games before they've earned their spot on the NCAA Tournament's national television stage.
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